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Some people find writing within the same boundaries and conventions can be a chore, severely limiting creativity. When you find that your blog’s content is lagging in variety, you might want to consider shifting gears a bit.
Take a look at some of these post types for ideas in how you can approach your content differently so you can rejuvenate your writing:
Yesterday, we posted 50 inspirational quotes to help you blog. But sometimes some words just ain’t enough. Blogging can be tough work, especially when you’re under pressure to deliver consistent posts and keep within the confines of specific subject matter. Luckily, we live in the information age where inspiration is to found around every corner. To help energize your blogging adventures, here are some of the best sources of inspiration that bloggers can draw on when creating captivating content.
Commenting on other blogs is a crucial step towards establishing successful relationships within the blogosphere and is a great way of drawing substantial traffic to your own blog. Valuable and insightful comments not only expand the conversation on the blogs they are featured on, they also present an opportunity for you to showcase your authority on particular subject matter and draw referrals from that blogger. Who knows, you can even be invited to provide a guest post or collaborate with others depending on the frequency and usefulness of your comments.
Now there are many bloggers out there who simply comment to shamelessly plug their own work. They may just write one or two sentences that only serve to promote their own blog, without providing anything substantial or relevant to the conversation. If you want to become a professional and credible blogger, you have to resist the temptation to merely plaster your blog’s name all over the place and learn to make valuable comments, earning the attention of other bloggers through your integrity, openness and honesty.
“Oh, so they have Internet on computers now”. Homer Simpson.
Sometimes blogging inspiration comes from the most unlikely places. While magazines and newspapers can teach you about creating captivating headlines, and books can teach you about proper sentence structure, tone and writing style, nothing can spark your creative energies like a quick trip into Springfield. What state? Which ever one the Simpsons are in, of course.
The following is a compilation of some of our favorite quips, catchphrases and odd-ball remarks uttered by
“Me fail English? That’s unpossible!” Ralph Wiggum.
The Hidden Beauty of Typos and Made Up Words
Since this line was first uttered many years ago, it has become one of Ralph’s signature displays of stupidity. That’s because ‘unpossible’ is instantly memorable, immediately grabbing people’s attention with its torturous mangling of proper spelling and grammar.
Made up words and deliberate typos are often a clever and playful way of grabbing the attention of your readers, creating a ‘mental hiccup’ in their minds that will either get them to laugh or push them to engage your content. Consider Nick Cernis’ “Made You Thunk” piece on CopyBlogger, where he discusses how purposeful typos, misquotes and made up words have worked to draw in readers and provoke responses from them. When used with caution and diligence, mangled writing Read the rest of this entry »
Basically, a blog carnival is a special event held on a blog. But this definition…lacks. Let’s take a moment to define the term properly and analyze just how it can really help your blog gain readership and authority within your niche.
Step Right Up!
A blog carnival is a pretty self-explanatory term in itself. Just like a real carnival, blog carnivals travel to different sites offering a variety of attractions, generally related to a single theme or topic. Blog carnivals are collaborative events that function in a similar way to magazines – they pull together a team of like-minded writers to focus on particular subject on a regular schedule.
More often than not, I get terribly frustrated when I begin to write blog posts. I can try and emulate the style of other great bloggers, and while this process can be helpful, it can end up feeling like a forced and tiring exercise. Often I get the ball rolling by starting a conversation with my peers or co-workers about my writer’s block. As we go back forth in the dialogue, we end up revealing our own personal experiences about writing and collaboratively come up with solutions for generating ideas.
The most revealing aspect about these conversations wasn’t the specific points we discussed, but the fact that we engaged in storytelling to make connections and map out our ideas. As we talk about our experiences, we actively ‘show’ our viewpoints rather than merely stating them. When we illustrate our thoughts through examples, we help our listeners relate to our subject and encourage their input, drawing the discussion down new and unexpected paths.
“A gentleman does not discuss religion or politics” is a maxim that you may be familiar with, often given when entering a new discussion or meeting new people. But when you take a look at the world of mass media you might notice how the most popular and influential figures are often the most obnoxious and polarizing.
Popular personalities like Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern and of course Simon Cowell of American Idol are just several figures that people love to hate. Drawing the ire of thousands, even millions of people is crucial to their success, as they attract the attention of other media sources chronicling their diatribes against the offended parties. The question is, does fanning the flames of controversy work for the blogosphere? Most indicators point to a solid ‘yes’ while some other voices of reason urge a more cautious approach. I took a look at what some prominent bloggers had to say about ‘being an ass’ in the blogosphere.
Takuin Minamoto has written an excellent piece “3 Days to Successful Blogging” on effective time management for his blog Rule of 5, exploring new ways of redefining your schedule to maximize your creative energy and make you a more dedicated and efficient blogger. Minamoto follows the philosophy of Jack Canfield, specifically his ideas on the Breakthrough Results Time System, to break your work schedule into three distinct day types: The Best Results Day, Preparation Day and Rest and Relaxation Day.
Each day has a specific purpose for honing your creative energies and should be separated from each other throughout the week. As the author notes, scheduling these days a week or so in advance will help you get into the swing of things. Here is how this time management system works:
Social media optimization (SMO) is practically synonymous with social media marketing (SMM). Actually, the two terms are so new to the search marketing industry that there’s been debate whether or not there is a difference; and if it would cause more confusion by refining their meanings into two separate definitions.
Cameron Othuis of Pronet Advertising offers one way to differentiate SMO and SMM by focusing on whether or not something new is created in the process. He suggests that optimization is simply the process of making onsite changes to a website or blog that facilitate social media users to fully enjoy, participate and pass the site onto their social media networks, such as providing Digg and Facebook icons to click on.
Blogging is more than just writing text and arranging images. It’s about having the right attitude and outlook to clearly and effectively communicate solutions and opinions to hundreds and even thousands of people.
This post is a motivational piece describing the personal characteristics that we, at Apollo Media, believe make for a successful blogger. The following are a few traits that everyone here at Apollo, blogger or not, aspires to develop:
Motivated and Dedicated
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